Forensic Interviews – Tucker Telephone

Forensic Interviews – Tucker Telephone

Forensic Interviews – Tucker Telephone – we received a gift from a client of twenty years. The item came with a note that reads – JSZ [that’t me] – we have been a client of your firm for twenty years and know you very well. Several years ago, we came into the possession of the item in the box. It needs a bit of cleaning up and we think you will find many uses for it. The device is known as a “Tucker Telephone” which was developed at the Tucker State Prison in Arkansas. We understand that the Chicago Police Dept. made extensive use of a similar device for many years. OK…we will do some research with respect to how one might use it in tax practice.

The “Tucker Telephone” was a torture device invented in Arkansas and regularly used at the Tucker State Prison Farm.

The Tucker Telephone consisted of an old-fashioned crank telephone wired in sequence with two batteries. Electrodes coming from it were attached to a prisoner’s big toe and genitals. The electrical components of the phone were modified so that cranking the telephone sent an electric shock through the prisoner’s body. The device was reputedly constructed in the 1960s by, depending upon the source, a former trustee in the prison, a prison superintendent, or an inmate doctor; it was administered as a form of punishment, usually in the prison hospital. In prison parlance, a “long-distance call” was a series of electric shocks in a row.

The name Tucker Prison evoked scenes of sadism and brutality prior to the prison reform initiatives put forward by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. According to February 20, 1967, Newsweek report, inmates were punished with beatings, whippings, torture with pliers, and needles put under their fingernails, in addition to the use of the Tucker Telephone. Much of the abuse was carried out by guards and the prison trusties who reported to them. Devices similar to the Tucker Telephone have been employed up to the present day. A Tucker Telephone was allegedly used in a Chicago violent crime unit managed by Lieutenant Jon Burge to torture suspects during the 1980s.

Our understanding is that the Tucker Telephone is being used in CPA practices in connection with

“Enhanced” forensic interviewing techniques, particularly in cases of suspected theft.

Reinforcement of firm policies for individuals that are repeatedly late in the submission of time and expense reports.

Collection of accounts receivable from clients that are repeat offenders for “late payment”.

Rumor has it that certain agencies are considering the device to aid in the collection of cannabis-related taxes.

Forensic Interviews – Tucker Telephone